At any age, and perhaps older ages in particular, we are all formed by the experiences we have been through. Our current view of the world is perceived through eyes that have been shaped by events that are often many years in the past.
I think about my mother-in-law who lived through the depression and knew what hunger and hopeless unemployment looked like. When she passed away she had shelves in the garage filled with canned goods. She and my father-in-law were more than stable financially, but she had been formed by another time and place, and she was preparing never to be hungry again. I felt we were honoring her past when we took all those cans to a community food bank.
In my life, my youth was spent in a military community whose reality for ten years was the Vietnam War. My life was defined by year-long separations, deaths, terrible wounds, and a nation in revolt. So when I look at the current situation with the coronavirus, I see it through eyes affected by that past. I admire beyond expressing those on the front lines of the health crisis, walking into sick rooms, answering police and fire calls, keeping open essential stores, and looking after older neighbors. But as unprecedented as this is I feel, because of my past, that some of us have been here before and no one noticed.
And all this brings up what is probably most needed in this crisis, and that is empathy. If we are still receiving a pay check, we are not living the fear and desperation of those who have been laid off and cannot pay their rent. If we are young and healthy we cannot imagine the distress of an older person with a respiratory disease. Our perspectives may be different but we can have compassion and understanding for those whose experiences are not ours. And this empathy may help and heal our nation in more ways than one.